Alexandre Gentner | Arts et Metiers ParisTech (original) (raw)

PhD by Alexandre Gentner

Definition and representation of user experience intentions in the early stage of the industrial design process: a focus of the kansei process, May 12, 2014

In the industrial context, users’ experience with products recently became a major differentiatio... more In the industrial context, users’ experience with products recently became a major differentiation factor between competitors and can greatly influence the success of a product. In parallel, the interest from the design research community about this topic is also growing. This research intends to contribute to both contexts by investigating the definition and representation of user experience intentions. When defining the theoretical background of this research a link will be created between the complementary notions of user experience and kansei process. Based on this original field of study, this dissertation will discuss design activities undertaken by design teams in order to nourish the much wider industrial design process.
With the five experiments that will be presented in this dissertation, I will explore the creation of tools and methodologies centred on potential users’ kansei process and supporting the creation of intentions related to the user experience of products to be designed. I will also investigate how the nature of the resulting early representations can impact reciprocal understanding within multi-cultural design teams, and finally how the developed approach (Kansei Design approach) can impact different typologies of new concept development projects.
In terms of academic contributions, this research enabled to model the exchange of kansei-related design information among design-teams and highlighted the added value of multi-sensory early representations resulting from experience-centred design activities. Regarding industrial contributions, the different experiments made it possible to characterise the Kansei Design approach in terms of tools, methodologies, and early representations. Moreover a link was established between the different characteristics of this approach and three typologies of new experience-centred concept development projects leading to different products development projects.

L’expérience perçue lors de l’utilisation de produits est récemment devenue un facteur différenci... more L’expérience perçue lors de l’utilisation de produits est récemment devenue un facteur différenciateur majeur entre les principaux acteurs de l’industrie. Elle influence désormais grandement le succès de nouveaux produits. En parallèle, l’intérêt de la communauté de recherche en design sur le sujet va en grandissant. La présente recherche apporte une contribution à ces deux mondes en explorant des moyens de définir et représenter des intentions d’expérience utilisateur. Une des originalités de cette recherche réside dans le fait que son assise théorique combine les notions complémentaires d’expérience utilisateur et de processus « kansei » (processus mental affectif) utilisées originellement par des communautés scientifiques différentes. Elle fait aussi partie du groupe très restreint de travaux qui investiguent les liens entre ces considérations et le monde industriel.
Au long des cinq expérimentations qui composent ce mémoire, j’explore la création d’outils et de méthodologies s’intéressant au processus kansei des futurs utilisateurs et permettant l’élaboration puis la communication d’intentions venant nourrir le processus de conception de nouveaux produits. L’influence de la nature des représentations amont sur la compréhension réciproque au sein d’équipes de conception multiculturelles (multi-nationalité et disciplinaire) ainsi que sur différentes typologies de projets prospectifs centrés sur l’expérience sont aussi mis en avant. En termes de contributions académiques, cette recherche a permis de modéliser l’information design échangée au sein d’équipes de conception visant à impacter les processus kansei des potentiels futurs utilisateurs. Elle a aussi mis en valeur les qualités et l’importance des représentations amont multi-sensorielles. Les contributions industrielles couvrent quant à elles, la création d’outils, de méthodologies et de représentations amonts permettant de caractériser l’approche dite du « Kansei Design », et d’établir des liens entre ces différents aspects et trois typologies de projets de développements de nouveaux concepts.

Presentations by Alexandre Gentner

This paper aims to exemplify the use and added-value of kansei design approach to new concept dev... more This paper aims to exemplify the use and added-value of kansei design approach to new concept development. It discussed the process followed and tools used during a master degree research [1]. This research is investigating how to improve the user experience of pedestrians encountering self-driving vehicles. It will discuss what is needed for pedestrians encountering self-driving vehicles to comprehend that they have been perceived and what is the car intention or advice to them. Two aspects will be covered: firstly, what needed is to establish a communication channel, so a message can be conveyed successfully and efficiently to the surrounding, and secondly finding minimum required information to raise trust into new technologies communicating perceiving, intention, and suggestion of an autonomous vehicle. Applying Kansei design approach to new concept development lead as to creating a novel light communication language in order to convey a message content to a pedestrian. It relied on a literature review, creativity workshops defining potentially critical situations and creating mutual understanding within the design team and of an iterative process of concept creation, rapid prototyping, and evaluation.

Product design may be used by companies as a central manifestation of their brand identity (Karja... more Product design may be used by companies as a central manifestation of their brand identity (Karjalainen, 2003). Components from the identity domain (culture, heritage, reputation) and the strategic identity (intentional associations) are infused in the design process and become inherent, intentional or non-intentional qualities of the final product. It appears therefore important for a company to better understand elements from its identity domain, such as the perception of its cultural values, in order to be able to intentionally be used as strategic identity.
This paper will present a research about East Asian cultural values perception from a European perspective. The specific interview material created based on a literature research will first be introduced together with the protocol used. The material was later used with two populations for each country investigated: Europeans with good knowledge about the country, and country nationals living in Europe. The explanation of the analysis will lead to the presentation of some results regarding the countries’ singularities and specificities. Finally, we will discuss the way these results could be used to nurture brand identity and early design activities.

Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics AHFE 2014, Jul 22, 2014

In this paper, twenty-seven experience-centred industrial design projects were analysed. Informat... more In this paper, twenty-seven experience-centred industrial design projects were analysed. Information was gathered from interviews with former project team members and from an analysis of the projects’ final reports. All of the projects involved at least the Toyota Motor Europe – Kansei Design (TME-KD) division. Three types of projects were identified: “exploratory concept,” “product lining strategy,” and “pre-development direction.” For each project groups, the analysis detailed specificities in terms of context (purpose, design team members), design activities (information, generation, evaluation & decision, communication), and regarding the nature of their outputs and the type of design information they conveyed. This led to a comparison of the different types of projects and a discussion about the kansei-related design information exchange in early design stages. A model of kansei-related design information based on these discussions is finally presented.

Kansei Engineering and Emotional Research (KEER) conference, Jun 2014

In order to strengthen communication efficiency between different functional teams and discuss th... more In order to strengthen communication efficiency between different functional teams and discuss the experience potential users could have with products, a tool composed of various sets of cards was created: the kansei cards. The pictures and keywords represented allow, according to the situation, for an investigation, discussion, and representation of intentional kansei qualities. Over the last three years, this tool has been used in various industrial design projects.
In this paper, we will first detail the state of the art that will set the frame for our research and introduce the key notions related to the creation of the tool and related methodologies. After having detailed our research question and hypothesis, we will present the creation of the kansei cards and two experimentations making use of them. The first methodology involves “users” in participatory design sessions to test if the cards permit an identification and communication of the directions of kansei-related design information. The second explores the impact that the cards have on discussions related to intentional experiences occurring within design team prior to idea-generation activities. To conclude, we will discuss the added value and limits of the tool and, more generally, the representation of kansei-related design information.

Kansei Engineering and Emotional Research (KEER) conference, Jun 2014

In this paper the authors will investigate early experience-centred design activities. Twenty-sev... more In this paper the authors will investigate early experience-centred design activities. Twenty-seven past industrial design projects were analysed. Information was gathered from interviews with former project team members and from an analysis of the projects’ final reports. All of the projects involved the Toyota Motor Europe – Kansei Design (TME-KD) division. Three types of projects were identified: “exploratory concept,” “product lining strategy,” and “pre-development direction.” The analysis will show that these project groups not only each have a specific context (purpose, design team members, audience) but that their outputs are also different regarding the type of design information they convey. This will lead to a comparison of the different typologies of projects and a discussion about the kansei-related design information exchange in early design stages. A model of kansei-related design information based on these discussions will be presented.

Journal articles by Alexandre Gentner

International Journal of Affective Engineering, Jun 30, 2015

In this article, twenty-seven experience-centered industrial design projects leading to kansei re... more In this article, twenty-seven experience-centered industrial design projects leading to kansei representations were analyzed. Information was gathered from interviews with former project team members and from an analysis of the projects' final reports. All of the projects involved at least the Toyota Motor Europe - Kansei Design (TME-KD) division. Three types of projects were identified: “exploratory concept,” “product lining strategy,” and “pre-development direction.” For each project groups, the analysis detailed specificities in terms of context (purpose, design team members), design activities (information, generation, evaluation & decision, communication), and regarding the nature of their outputs (kansei representation) and the type of design information they conveyed. This led to a comparison of the different types of projects and a discussion about the kansei-related design information exchange in early design stages. A model of kansei-related design information based on these discussions is finally presented.

International Journal of Affective Engineering, Jul 2013

This article presents a kansei design methodology. It is placed at the very beginning of the desi... more This article presents a kansei design methodology. It is placed at the very beginning of the design process and aims to influence the following steps in order to improve the user’s understanding and experiencing of the designed product. The experimentation combines in a subtle way the design thinking approach of learning by doing and the kansei engineering quantitative approach. The research presented is based on the results of a previous study that defined the semantic and emotional scope of future hybrid cars for European using visual stimuli. This kansei design methodology creates and assesses multi-sensory atmospheres is order to provide tangible direction composed of vision, touch, hearing and smell stimuli. From the cognitive and affective responses of the 42 participants we were able to detail 3 directions for future cars interiors that aim to enrich the styling design briefs and to influence the design strategies such as the management of the different grades. The research presented here was supported by the Kansei Design department from Toyota Motor Europe (TME-KD). This collaboration also brought an industrial context to it.

Book chapter by Alexandre Gentner

Advances in Affective and Pleasurable Design, 2014

In this paper, twenty-seven experience-centred industrial design projects were analysed. Informat... more In this paper, twenty-seven experience-centred industrial design projects were analysed. Information was gathered
from interviews with former project team members and from an analysis of the projects’ final reports. All of the
projects involved at least the Toyota Motor Europe – Kansei Design (TME-KD) division. Three types of projects
were identified: “exploratory concept,” “product lining strategy,” and “pre-development direction.” For each project
groups, the analysis detailed specificities in terms of context (purpose, design team members), design activities
(information, generation, evaluation & decision, communication), and regarding the nature of their outputs and the
type of design information they conveyed. This led to a comparison of the different types of projects and a
discussion about the kansei-related design information exchange in early design stages. A model of kansei-related
design information based on these discussions is finally presented.

Emotional Engineering Volume 4, 2016

The aim of this chapter is to present a first understanding of the Kansei design approach and how... more The aim of this chapter is to present a first understanding of the Kansei design approach and how it can be bridged within an industrial context. It proposes a theoretical point of view of our division build on researches still conducted to link Kansei philosophy and user experience in a first time and then to understand how an interaction can impact the full user experience. Furthermore, the automotive context of these researches leads us to develop and use several methodologies and tools that are presented in this chapter. We develop them in order to increase what users live with their products from an early design point of view, beyond the product itself.

Conference papers by Alexandre Gentner

Proceedings of KEER conference, 2018

In our globalized environment, and particularly in the context of industrial design activities in... more In our globalized environment, and particularly in the context of industrial design activities in international companies or research institutions, it is increasingly frequent to take part in diverse scenarios involving at least two different cultural contexts. Therefore, it becomes an essential point during the initiation of the design process to achieve an optimal transmission of design information in order to increase the added value of the project through the implementation of accurate cultural layers. However, issues pertaining to communication may arise throughout the process if there is an inadequacy in cultural understanding. Hence, it is crucial to address the significance of cross-cultural tools to be used in communication of the design information in its initial phase. Two case studies are referred to openly discuss the matter. Both cases correspond to research projects that were conducted at the Kansei Design division, Toyota Motor Europe (KD-TME). Both projects generated specific tools as a practical output for strategists and designers to use as a way to produce inspirational materials or define a target user, with a more grounded and sensible cultural base.

Proceedings of KEER conference, 2018

Proceedings of KEER conference, 2016

Product design may be used by companies as a central manifestation of their brand identity (Karja... more Product design may be used by companies as a central manifestation of their brand identity (Karjalainen, 2003). Components from the identity domain (culture, heritage, reputation) and the strategic identity (intentional associations) are infused in the design process and become inherent, intentional or non-intentional qualities of the final product. It appears therefore important for a company to better understand elements from its identity domain, such as the perception of its cultural values, in order to be able to intentionally be used as strategic identity. This paper will present a research about East Asian cultural values perception from a European perspective. The specific interview material created based on a literature research will first be introduced together with the protocol used. The material was later used with two populations for each country investigated: Europeans with good knowledge about the country, and country nationals living in Europe. The explanation of the analysis will lead to the presentation of some results regarding the countries' singularities and specificities. Finally, we will discuss the way these results could be used to nurture brand identity and early design activities.

Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics AHFE 2014, Jul 22, 2014

Designer’s expertise refers to the scientific fields of emotional design and kansei information. ... more Designer’s expertise refers to the scientific fields of emotional design and kansei information. This paper aims to answer to a scientific major issue which is, how to formalize designer’s knowledge, rules, skills into kansei information systems. Kansei can be considered as a psycho-physiologic, perceptive, cognitive and affective process through a particular experience. Kansei oriented methods include various approaches which deal with semantics and emotions, and show the correlation with some design properties. Kansei words may include semantic, sensory, emotional descriptors, and also objects names and product attributes. Kansei levels of information can be seen on an axis going from abstract to concrete dimensions. Sociological value is the most abstract information positioned on this axis. Previous studies demonstrate the values the people aspire to drive their emotional reactions in front of particular semantics. This means that the value dimension should be considered in kansei studies. Through a chain of value-function-product attributes it is possible to enrich design generation and design evaluation processes. This paper describes some knowledge structures and formalisms we established according to this chain, which can be further used for implementing computer aided design tools dedicated to early design. These structures open to new formalisms which enable to integrate design information in a non-hierarchical way. The foreseen algorithmic implementation may be based on the association of ontologies and bag-of-words.

NordDesign conference, Aug 2012

This paper, part of a PhD research, focuses on ways to improve new concept development (NCD) acti... more This paper, part of a PhD research, focuses on ways to improve new concept development (NCD) activities. This research is done in collaboration with the Kansei Design (KD) division of Toyota Motor Europe (TME), a team composed of designers and engineers bringing a particular dynamism to research and development activities. The paper presents a new platform for NCD aiming to assist the flow of ideas for the creation of user experience. It integrates kansei methodologies as well as more classical design-thinking approaches and uses as basis the analysis of 13 past NCD projects.
The kansei approach to design pays particular attention to the different senses involved in the user experience as well as values, emotions and symbols perceived and felt. Kansei-based tools have a large scope. They can be used to provide design-guidelines but also at the creation and evaluation phases. They have also revealed themselves complementary to other approaches and in that way improve the quantity and quality of NCD methods available.
These synergies are particularly useful in a context of user experience creation including concepts (function, sensory attributes, values, emotions) and also design strategies.

Definition and representation of user experience intentions in the early stage of the industrial design process: a focus of the kansei process, May 12, 2014

Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics AHFE 2014, Jul 22, 2014

Kansei Engineering and Emotional Research (KEER) conference, Jun 2014

International Journal of Affective Engineering, Jun 30, 2015

International Journal of Affective Engineering, Jul 2013

Advances in Affective and Pleasurable Design, 2014

In this paper, twenty-seven experience-centred industrial design projects were analysed. Informat... more In this paper, twenty-seven experience-centred industrial design projects were analysed. Information was gathered
from interviews with former project team members and from an analysis of the projects’ final reports. All of the
projects involved at least the Toyota Motor Europe – Kansei Design (TME-KD) division. Three types of projects
were identified: “exploratory concept,” “product lining strategy,” and “pre-development direction.” For each project
groups, the analysis detailed specificities in terms of context (purpose, design team members), design activities
(information, generation, evaluation & decision, communication), and regarding the nature of their outputs and the
type of design information they conveyed. This led to a comparison of the different types of projects and a
discussion about the kansei-related design information exchange in early design stages. A model of kansei-related
design information based on these discussions is finally presented.

Emotional Engineering Volume 4, 2016

Proceedings of KEER conference, 2018

Proceedings of KEER conference, 2016

Product design may be used by companies as a central manifestation of their brand identity (Karja... more Product design may be used by companies as a central manifestation of their brand identity (Karjalainen, 2003). Components from the identity domain (culture, heritage, reputation) and the strategic identity (intentional associations) are infused in the design process and become inherent, intentional or non-intentional qualities of the final product. It appears therefore important for a company to better understand elements from its identity domain, such as the perception of its cultural values, in order to be able to intentionally be used as strategic identity. This paper will present a research about East Asian cultural values perception from a European perspective. The specific interview material created based on a literature research will first be introduced together with the protocol used. The material was later used with two populations for each country investigated: Europeans with good knowledge about the country, and country nationals living in Europe. The explanation of the analysis will lead to the presentation of some results regarding the countries' singularities and specificities. Finally, we will discuss the way these results could be used to nurture brand identity and early design activities.

Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics AHFE 2014, Jul 22, 2014

NordDesign conference, Aug 2012

Confere conference, Jul 2012

The research presented in this paper is part of a PhD centred on the upstream design process phas... more The research presented in this paper is part of a PhD centred on the upstream design process phases, aiming to establish a structured platform from a macro point of view and to identify and develop key knowledge to improve the process-flow on a practical side. This paper starts by presenting the scope of new concept development (NCD) process and introduces kansei design methodologies. Through the exploration of kansei design connexions could be established with NCD. This analysis made us emit the hypothesis that at least 3 kansei design activities can support NCD processes: “understand” the exact scope and environment of a project in order to bring hints to the next action, “create” concept propositions and “assess” these concept propositions. In the second part of the paper, past studies realised within the Kansei Design division of Toyota Motor Europe are analysed in order to investigate the characteristics of the three activities. This step also permits us to identify improvement that can be made to the methodologies in our future researches.

IDEMI conference, Sep 2013

This paper is part of a PhD research aiming to develop knowledge and know-how improving the creat... more This paper is part of a PhD research aiming to develop knowledge and know-how improving the creation and communication of design strategies related to user experiences during the early design phases.
In this paper the authors will investigate early user experience representation possibilities available using a kansei experience design approach. The inference, procedures that take designers from data to conclusions, of this approach combines inspiration-centred (design thinking) and explanation-centred (analytical thinking) ways of thinking. 21 past industrial design projects were investigated through interviews with former project team members as well as final report analysis. They all involved the Toyota Motor Europe – Kansei Design division. This analysis permit to identify three type of context for these early representations of user experience: “exploratory concept”, “product lining strategy” and “pre-development direction”. They will all three be detailed in term of purposes, activities, conveyed design information and stakeholders. This will enable comparison and a discussion about their specific role in the industrial design process. The discussion will finally lead to future evolution and improvements of early representation of user experience and of the kansei experience design approach.

IASDR conference, Aug 2013

This paper is part of a Ph.D. research focused on the upstream design phases and aiming to develo... more This paper is part of a Ph.D. research focused on the upstream design phases and aiming to develop knowledge and know-how in order to improve early user experience representations. In this article, the user experience is understood as a combination of components and influencing factors during the interaction of a user and a product. As input to this study, the authors collected 211 descriptions of user experiences from participants around the world. The database created puts user experiences components (aesthetic pleasure, semantic attribution, emotions) in relation with influencing factors: the personal characteristics of the user (e.g. gender, age, nationality, values) and product, interaction and context attributes (e.g. functioning mechanism, action enabled, type of interface, amount of users involved).
In this research, the database obtained is analysed with two different approaches. The first seeks to identify correlations between influencing factors and user experience components. The second organises the experience reported by the participants in clusters according to their components. Relating key influencing factors to these clusters permits to define 15 user experience harmonies representing 15 distinctive directions. Finally the added values for design practice of both approaches are discussed.

Work

BACKGROUND: For passengers in private or public transportation systems, comfort is a major intere... more BACKGROUND: For passengers in private or public transportation systems, comfort is a major interest. Available comfort models are already used to correlate thermal comfort to influencing factors. However, the available models do not other sensory comfort aspect and specific influences as fragrances and ambient light. OBJECTIVE: This publication investigates the impact of fragrances with “warm” and “cold” associated meanings on thermal and overall comfort perception. METHODS: Human subject trials (n = 47) were performed in different temperature-controlled environments following a 3×3 within-subject design considering ambient fragrance (“neutral scent”, “peppermint”, “orange & cinnamon”) and ambient light as variables. RESULTS: Olfactory comfort is shown to have the larger effect on overall comfort perception, comparable in weight to the one of thermal comfort. The impact observed on thermal sensation was in line with the meanings associated the fragrances, whereas it was positive on ...